I was a volunteer for the Keys to Canaan. I was afforded a wonderful opportunity through the Keys to Canaan to teach mothers, grand-mothers and single-women from low income families. Another wonderful opportunity I was afforded was to teach and provide moral support to father's who were ex-offenders who were being connected back to their family and community.
Keys to Canaan is a non-profit organization that has a heart for the family and has been a strong positive impact to many families.
I enjoyed working the public and distributing health information to the community. I have worked as a volunteer for two years. The community looks forward to the health fair and the activities. The health fair is instrumental to those who are unable to afford or receive health care.
I worked with the Keys to Canaan as a consultant to help build organizational capacity, e.g. staffing, fundraising, etc. I found the executive director to be extremely hardworking, intelligent, committed to the community served by the organization and a person of great integrity. The organization has achieved what it has and served the people it has served, primarily, because of the executive director's steadfast commitment to the organization and its success. Her commitment and dedication has created a similar culture throughout the organization. The Keys to Canaan serves the community by providing a variety of services to include job training, life coaching and exercise and nutrition. These services are essential to a community, which is overlooked and underserved.
Keys to Canaan has had health fairs, and other events in my community including Feet Washing and National Night Out. A lot of these events involve the children that live in the very large apartment complexes in my neighborhood. I hope that Keys to Canaan can continue to bring these events to our community that are of great benefit to our children.
Deborah Nix is doing a wonderful job with Keys To Canaan for the community she serves and abroad. The women she comes in contact with are empowered, motivated and encourage to be the best they can be. Keys To Canaan, what a great asset to the community!
Keys to Canaan is a wonderfully-enriching source of both health and spiritual support to low-income, woman and children living in fatherless households in a large housing complexe in one of the underserved Wards of Washington, DC.
In choosing to mentor this population group, Keys to Canaan has embarked on a emotional, spiritual, and logistical committment to improving the lives of 2-3 generations mired in poverty, illiteracy, low self-esteem, low social skills, and an often entrenched wariness of organizations claiming to positively affecting community outreach.
With a longstanding, genuine, and truthful committment to this population, Keys to Canaan has earned the trust of its most vulnerable constituents--the mothers and their children. The mothers--who, like many responsible parents--are simply trying to raise their children in very trying circumstances--have come to depend on the capabilities, valuing, and profound human interaction that this organization offers.
I have recenly had two opportunities to see this outreach in action, while working as a photographer for a Keys to Canaan's recent "Heath Fair" and "Spa Day" community events. At the Health Fair, area participants from low-income housing were specifically invited for an outdoor festival that would expose them to demonstrations of fun exercise routines; face-painting for the children; a youth drum corps; hip-hop dance routines; vendors promoting information on preventing stroke; chefs who cooked fresh, healthful and very tasty foods; blood-pressures screening by certified health practicioners, and home safety demonstrations presented by the local fire department liaison and community outreach department.
This wonderful atmosphere was supplemented by local vendors who sold wares relevant to the monetary capabilities of their prospective customers and interacted with them in an easy spirit of share-valued commeraderie.
The second instance in which I participated in a Keys to Canaan-sponsored event was that Health Fair. The mothers of the surrounding low-income housing community were invited to enjoy a day that included a catered lunch; manicures and pedicures; demonstrations on using cosmetics; soothing music; body massages; stress-relief/holistic health pamphlets; private consultations, and drawings for beautiful gift baskets that were graciously donated by the vendors. Their introduction to this lavishly-pampering event began with colorful balloons marking the entrance-way and a greeter who addressed them with dignity and joy at their attendance. That spirit of openness and embracing continued to the very end of the day's festivities I am sure that each participant was bouyed by the occassion and went be to her home with a spirit of warmth and inclusiveness.
Keys to Canaan is is wonderfully effective organization that is much-needed by its clientele and the community.
I helped served with as a volunteer on the Back-to-School program, whereas, there was disbribution of back to school supplies for needed families with the Benning Terrace Community. The Keys to Canaan has brought many programs to Benning Terrace community, including: Life Coaching , basic adult education, and started weekly exercise class for those who want to live and remain healthy and long lives.
Besides being a pleasure to work with, Keys of Canaan just recently partner with Nu-You and United Way to provide the Get Fit Stage Show. This stage production was aimed to promote the message of healthy eating and exercise through creative forms of circus entertainment. Keys of Canaan was very instrumental in bringing a program to the community that has made a lasting impression on children and adults.